Worrying for anyone who wants effective governance in NI.

Also note that for a long time the standard for whether MPs expenses were reasonable or not was to compare to John Lewis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lewis_List

Robert Peston tweeted

@Peston
I understand that @BorisJohnson's first conversations about having the Downing Street flat funded by donors were as long ago as February 2020. At the time Ben Elliot, joint chairman of the party suggested the PM borrow to pay the costs. The PM then came up with the idea...

of a blind trust, again funded by donors. But the Cabinet Office could not sort the proprieties. According to an email leaked to the Daily Mail, the Tory donor Lord Brownlow then contributed £58,000 "to cover the payments the party has already made on behalf of the soon...

to be formed 'Downing Street Trust'" - which was never formed. The Tory Party had seemingly already paid back the Cabinet Office for the decorating bills it had paid on the PM's behalf. And the PM has now paid back the Tory Party. We don't know when the...
Robert Peston
@Peston

PM paid the Tory Party, or how he found the funds to do that when he didn't have them in February of last year. We also don't know whether Brownlow has also been repaid. And we don't know who in the Cabinet Office and among Johnson's advisers knew what was going on. Cummings...

says he was clear with the PM from last summer that he should dig into his own pocket, by taking out a personal bank loan, to pay for the furnishings and decoration of his home. There are so many unanswered questions. And prima facie there are an astonishing number of...

disclosure rules that have been breached, along with rules of common sense. For what it's worth, a source tells me "Ben Elliot tried to stop the madness repeatedly". He seems to have failed.

That was the point where Carrie went off IKEA furniture.

Oddly, many folk are capable of thinking about more than one thing at once...

And this "thing" is of a piece with many other things around at present, such as Johnson's lackadaisical attitude to anything and everything, typical Tory "One rule for us" BS and nest feathering (just look at the derisory amount they want to give to NHS staff in this year's pay round), another example of Johnson lying, another example of Tory financial shenanigans and more.

Robert Hutton tweeted

@RobDotHutton
I have already made it clear that I will cooperate fully with the supermarket security guard, and - please let me finish, and if he finds the bottle of gin that I've hidden down my trousers, I will hand it back.

And Johnson trousering someone else's money, quite likely illegally, to pay for the refurbishment of the flat which he's given as part of his sodding job (just one of the properties...) compares very badly with this - https://www.theguardian.com/society/...e-safety-bills.

Just to repeat what I posted earlier.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...anda.mandelson

"The home loan scandal, which forced Peter Mandelson to resign as trade and industry secretary two years ago, has come back to haunt him. The man who gave him most of the money, the former paymaster general and millionaire Geoffrey Robinson, claims in his new memoir that Mr Mandelson solicited the loan."

What Boris Johnson wrote about that scandal in 1998 when he was a journalist;

https://twitter.com/pickardje/status...11363748470785

The hypocrisy is staggering and part of Johnson's manner and why he not fit to be PM, let alone an MP.

"In February xxxx, told parliament: “No leaseholder should have to pay for the unaffordable costs of fixing safety defects that they didn’t cause and are no fault of their own.” Campaigners say he has now broken that promise.

I wonder who xxxx might be?

What a quality rant - I haven't come across him before. Excellent stuff - thanks!

Speaking of Twitter an interesting thread on Johnson's tightfistedness which speaks to the unlikelihood of him paying anything himself.


https://twitter.com/questingvole/sta...37868834660353

He could end it by just saying where the money came from.

YVW. Plenty more Pie on YouTube :)

Why, it's almost like that would be yet another example of someone not telling the truth or not being able to back up things they claim or even just being a callous, uncaring **** who'll say any opportunistic thing that comes into his head to get himself out of that day's hard questions.

But I'm sure someone will be along to tell us that folk aren't bothered 'cos East Enders is on tonight.

This government illegally prorogued parliament because democracy wasn't giving them the answer they wanted. I'd love to think that a bit of wallpaper would bring it down but it ain't going to happen.

I can't imagine anything BJ could do to lose his lead - maybe show sympathy for asylum seekers?

Well the combo of £100,000 for his flat and bugger all for leaseholders faced with huge fire safety bills is exactly the sort of thing that could turn the media against him, and if they stop giving him an easy ride he won't last long.

I think (hope) a couple of things might come into play, the first is that it's more accessible to the punter in the street, peerages, multimillion pound contracts, non-exec positions etc are a bit distant for most people but a £60 grand decorating job is simultaneously small enough to grok & big enough to seem like a lot of money and makes people think "even if he did pay it back no-one would loan me an amount like that and want nothing in return". The fact that the end result of all that cash looks so awful to most also helps drive a wedge through his man-of-the-people facade.

The second thing is his reaction to questioning, that picture of him shouting, scowling and pointing like a thwarted toddler is getting a wide circulation, it's a glimpse behind the mask and damages Johnson's greatest (only real?) asset, his Bloke-You'd-Like-To-Have-A-Drink-With image.

Boris' mobile phone number has been available online for the last 15 years.

He's using his own phone rather than an official secure govt one.

Government reaction has been to attack the journalists for pointing this out rather than to say Boris is no longer using his own phone with a number that has been public for 15 years.

That’s his slippery eel.

One presumes Johnson can arrange a low cost loan for anyone needing one?

Global Britain.

The UK is to cut its funding for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) by 95 per cent, from £100m to £5m.

https://goodlawproject.org/update/aw...racts-vip-lane



Difficult to not quote the whole press release - as the rest is also bad.

They were treated as 'super' calculators.

The Chancellor seems to think Boris using his own phone and having his number public for over a decade is a good thing.
He says it shows how 'approachable' and willing to listen and talk to people he is

Sunak said what made the PM "special" was that he was "incredibly approachable".
"You see it whenever he is out and about - people feel they can relate to him, they can talk to him, they can tell him what's on their mind."

He also revealed he had not changed his own personal phone number since becoming chancellor last February.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-56937889

"Britain Trump" strikes again.

Westminster Voting Intention:

CON: 44% (=)
LAB: 33% (-1)
LDM: 7% (+2)
GRN: 7% (=)
SNP: 4% (-1)
RFM: 3% (+1)

Via @YouGov, 27-28 Apr.
Changes w/ 21-22 Apr.

Yes nothing else matters apart from the fact that the pubs are open and people can go on their holidays.

The almost criminal mismanagement of the Covid crisis, the cronyism, the sleaze, none of this matters because the public are grateful, have short memories and tunnel vision. :(

And. VAAACCCCINNNEEEEE!!!!

For anyone in any doubt as to why folk should be concerned about how much our PM pays for his wallpaper and who gave him the money, this - https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...allpaper-lying - is a useful recipe of the cake on which the home decor bit sits as a cherry.

Or see Peter Oborne's website - https://boris-johnson-lies.com/ . FFS, when the likes of Oborne turn on a senior Tory, they have to be pretty rotten.

Builders who use Grenfell cladding give Tories £2.5m

Property developers responsible for flats covered in dangerous cladding have donated £2.5 million to the Conservative Party since the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, analysis has found.

Boris Johnson has personally received £50,000 from individuals with links to the cladding debacle.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/b...2-5m-5c9gwvhrb

Don't forget it is because he is so accessible to all the everyday folk....

Doesn’t even include “there’s no press here”, which I think is one of the most telling ones.

Its legalised bribery. The UK pretends it is not corrupt, by making corruption legal.

Certainly helps explain that vote I highlighted earlier, doesn't it?

Tory poll lead slashed as key elections loom across Britain.

Let's hope it's the beginning of a tidal wave.

After the internal coup to depose her it looks like Arlene Foster will be replaced as leader of the DUP by Edwin Poots.
So if you were wondering if these was someone worse, the answer is, very much, yes. A misogynistic, evolution denying, young earth creationist, homophobic god-botherer with only tenuous connections to reality.
Not that this should be any surprise as Poots has been trying to push out Foster since she got the leadership mantle from Robinson and has been responsible for various leaks and rumours against her for the past year.

Johnson has told friends that he needs to earn about £300,000 a year — twice his salary — to keep his head above water, while a former No 10 insider said it was “received wisdom” that he is permanently broke.

https://thetimes.co.uk/article/can-b...ster-m2brczgq9

******* hell, how many undocumented children is he paying maintenance for???
Or, does he have a very expensive coke habit or blackmailers to pay off?

I've managed to live on less than a tenth of that a year for most of my adult life.
If you can't live on less than £100k a year you're a careless ******

As someone posted

Your child brings home their new partner
You learn they:
- Got sacked TWICE for lying
- Had a reputation for being an adulterer
- Conspired to have someone beaten up
- Wouldn’t admit how many kids they had
You wouldn’t be a fan
And yet you’d vote for him to lead your country

Johnson is saying that he needs the price of a semi-detatched house in Norwich every year in addition to the average wage in the UK to keep his head above water.

Musicians' Union
@WeAreTheMU
The Government has announced plans to impose a catastrophic 50% funding cut to arts subjects at higher education (HE) level in England, including music.

The Government has announced that it plans to impose a 50 percent funding cut to “high cost” subjects at higher education (HE) in England, including music. This is because music and the arts are not among its “strategic priorities”.

Time for a little light relief, London Mayoral election candidate Brian Rose.

No longer just known for drinking his own urine and denying Covid.

Google his name and nunchuks... and click on whatever video hasn't been taken down.

You need to listen with the sound on

There was a vox pop on PM on Friday (from Wolverhampton, which was of interest to me as my dad came from there) during which one person said that they felt sorry for Johnson because of all the things which had happened since he became PM...This is what we are dealing with.

My second thought was along the lines of "FFS! Did you pick someone just to make the town sound daft?". Then I remembered that the area my dad grew up in used to elect Enoch Powell, until he decided the Tories weren't racist enough and buggered off to the DUP.

Feeling sorry for Johnson? WTAF!!!!!!!!!

Don't forget
Wife of ex KGB mate of Vlad donates a reported £1.72m to party funds.
14 Cabinet Ministers received Russian funding.
Cummins trained for 3 years in Russia.
Russian owned company built the £2m+ Downing Street video studio.
Boris buried the Russia report and made the son of an 'Oligarch' 'Lord Siberia'

If NI politics was already divisive, this;

https://www.belfastlive.co.uk/news/b...-down-20511991

"DUP minister Edwin Poots has plans to split the roles of party leader and Northern Ireland First Minister if he is elected to the top job, it has been reported.
Mr Poots, who is in the running to succeed Arlene Foster as party leader, is expected to turn down the First Minister's role if his leadership campaign succeeds.
In a statement to the Sunday Life, a spokesman for the Agriculture minister confirmed his intention to appoint a DUP colleague to the joint-head of government while he takes the reigns of the party."

He wants to lead the DUP, but not be First Minister.

"Just following orders"

To be fair, he's only paid around £150k per year, chicken feed compared to the £225k he was paid to be a Times columnist. And with two ex-wives and an alleged five children (six if you include the latest), I can imagine the upkeep is becoming quite expensive.

Isn’t it 7 kids by 5 women?

Who knows? I'd imagine only the children and the official recieve any form of child support/maintenance from him anyway.

But it is remarkable that he's managed to keep it swept under the rug for so long.

Edit: I realise my language wasn't all too clear, in my original post I meant he's probably paying maintenance to two ex-wives and five children.

Johnson is a security risk due to his dodgy finances and circumstances and he needs to go.

Not that I wanted him there in the first place. The UK public's obsession with toffs from Eton is bizarre. They are trained to network and preserve their cronies. They are only in it for themselves and their friends.

Part of the UK public. Going by the latest poll, the majority of people will not be voting Tory.

With first past the post they don’t need to.